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TOP STORIES
Iran's government and entities close to the elite
Revolutionary Guards have signed major economic contracts with Syria,
reaping what appear to be lucrative rewards for helping President
Bashar al-Assad regain control of parts of his country from rebels. An
opposition group condemned the telecommunications and mining deals
signed with Iran, Damascus's main regional ally, as
"looting" of the Syrian people and the country's wealth by
the "Iranian extremist militias"... Five memorandums of
understanding were signed during a visit by Syrian Prime Minister
Emad Khamis to Tehran on Tuesday, including a licence for Iran to
become a mobile phone service operator in Syria, and phosphate mining
contracts... Analysts said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
(IRGC), a military force that runs a powerful industrial empire in
Iran, would benefit from the deals, especially on the mobile network
contract. IRGC largely controls telecommunications in Iran.
"Telecoms are a very sensitive industry. It will allow Iran to
closely monitor Syrian communications," said Karim Sadjadpour,
senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's
Middle East programme... "Iran increasingly treats Syria as one
of its own provinces," Sadjadpour said. "They saved Assad
from falling, and now seem to feel entitled to help themselves to the
Syrian economy."
A historic high-rise in the heart of Tehran caught
fire and collapsed Thursday in a giant cloud of smoke, killing dozens
of firefighters who were battling the blaze, Iranian news media reported.
At least 50 firefighters were killed in the collapse of the 17-story
Plasco building, a symbol of modernity that was constructed in the
early 1960s, the official IRNA news agency said... "This
landmark of modernity is gone," said Siavash Ramesh, a tour
guide who was working in the building Thursday morning... It also
stood out for its builder: a Jewish plastics tycoon, Habib Elghanian,
who was executed in the months after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran's ruling mullahs accused Elghanian, the head of a prominent
association of Jewish Iranians, of spying for Israel, which triggered
an exodus of Jews from the country... Others saw deeper meaning in
the building's collapse. Ramesh, the tour guide, recalled the story
of how a political activist who opposed the ruling theocracy was
allegedly dropped from the top of the building by security agents for
refusing to disclose sensitive information. "The building took
revenge from the people who misused it," Ramesh said.
Despite Iran's landmark purchases of new planes from
Airbus SE and Boeing Co., some of the biggest aircraft-leasing
companies remain leery about entering the country amid uncertainty
over the incoming Trump administration's policy toward the Islamic
Republic... big aircraft lessors still are reluctant to do business
in Iran. "We will remain cautious," said John Plueger,
chief executive of Air Lease Corp... Years of sanctions have left
Iran with one of the world's oldest airline fleets in need of modernization.
But full order books at Airbus and Boeing mean Iranian carriers can
only slowly get new planes. Airbus is expected to hand over around
nine planes this year, with the first jetliner from Boeing due next
year, Iran Air's Chief Executive Farhad Parvaresh said last week.
Airlines looking for popular planes more quickly often turn to plane
lessors to introduce such aircraft. In other cases lessors become the
financiers of new aircraft ordered by airlines through so called
sale-leaseback transactions... Businesses are worried the U.S. may
reimpose sanctions. "There is a substantial snap-back
risk," said Olaf Sachau, chief executive of Intrepid Aviation.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
The United Nations, the European Union and key players
in the Iran nuclear agreement delivered a united message Wednesday
aimed at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump: The deal is working and
must be maintained to keep Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Speaker after speaker at a U.N. Security Council meeting on
implementation of the 2015 deal stressed its historic nature and its
success after its first year... While Trump was not mentioned by
name, their messages were clearly intended for the new U.S. leader
who will be inaugurated Friday and has strongly criticized the Iran
deal, vowing at times during the presidential campaign either to walk
away from it or to renegotiate it... EU foreign policy chief Federica
Mogherini, who facilitated the agreement, praised the deal as "a
major achievement" and said all participants have fulfilled their
commitments, citing "a staggering 63 percent" rise in
EU-Iran trade in the first three quarters of 2016 as one example of
the results of lifting sanctions.
Iran's foreign minister said Thursday his country
isn't worried and has options if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump
ditches a nuclear agreement reached between Iran and six world
powers. Despite "grievances" that Iran has over the pact
made with the current U.S. government, Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran
still believes it should be honored. "Whatever he does to the
nuclear deal, we are not worried because we have our own options. But
we believe it's in the interest of everybody to stick to the deal.
Most importantly it's an international agreement. It's not a
bilateral agreement between Iran and the United States," he told
reporters on the sidelines of a meeting in Kuala Lumpur... Asked what
Iran will do If Trump's government walks away from the deal, Zarif
said, "President Trump likes surprises and we will make him
surprised." Pressed on what he meant, he laughed and said,
"It won't be a surprise anymore if I tell you."
It would be better for the United States to carefully
review the 2015 Iran nuclear deal rather than unilaterally withdraw
from it, Nikki Haley, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for
ambassador to the United Nations, said on Wednesday. "I think
what would be more beneficial at this point is that we look at all
the details of the Iran deal, we see if they (the Iranians) are
actually in compliance. If we find that there are violations that we
act on those violations," Haley told lawmakers at her Senate
confirmation hearing.
The United Nations Security Council needs to push Iran
to abide by an arms embargo, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power
said on Wednesday amid U.N. concerns that Tehran has supplied weapons
and missiles to Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah. Most U.N. sanctions
were lifted a year ago under a deal Iran made with Britain, France,
Germany, China, Russia, the United States and the European Union to
curb its nuclear program. But Iran is still subject to an arms
embargo and other restrictions, which are not technically part of the
nuclear agreement. In her last appearance at a public Security
Council meeting before U.S. President Barack Obama's administration
steps aside on Friday, Power said that recognizing "progress on
Iran's nuclear issues should not distract this council from Iran's
other actions that continue to destabilize the Middle
East."Under a Security Council resolution enshrining the 2015
deal, the U.N. secretary-general is required to report every six
months on any violations of sanctions still in place.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAM
Senior aide to the head of the Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran (AEOI) Asqar Zare'an announced that the country
is preparing to inject gas into its latest generation of centrifuge
machines, IR8, in the near future. "The mechanical tests of IR8
machine which has been made by Iranian experts and is fully
indigenized have ended and we will inject uranium gas into a single
machine within the framework of the nuclear deal in Natanz and under
the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in
the very near future," Zare'an said on Wednesday. He stressed
that the measure will increase the country's capability to enrich
uranium, while it also sends a message to the world powers party to
the 2015 nuclear deal that any violation of the agreement could convince
Iran to revive its past nuclear operations with such a capability
that it can replace the old centrifuge machines with advanced ones.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
As and Republicans are considering a bill that would
require incoming president Donald Trump and his intelligence chiefs
to investigate Tehran's use of its state-run civilian airline to
ferry military parts and figures to its battleground in Syria. The
bill is part of a larger effort by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Illinois) to
interrupt Iranian business with two of the world's largest aerospace
companies, Boeing and Airbus. His new bill, titled the Terror-Free Skies
Act, was introduced with Brad Sherman (D-California) and Lee Zeldin
(R-New York). Iran argues that blocking or impeding its access to
Boeing and Airbus products would violate a nuclear deal it brokered
with world powers in 2015. That agreement, the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, includes a provision which commits the US to
"allow for the sale of commercial passenger aircraft and related
parts and services" for "exclusively civil aviation
end-use." But that last clause- "exclusively civil aviation
end-use"- has some members of Congress convinced that Iran's
airline deals can legally be halted, in full compliance with the
JCPOA. That's because the US Treasury Department, State Department,
and intelligence agencies all assess that Iran Air and its subsidiary,
Mahan Air, are complicit in illicit arms transfers to Lebanon-based
terrorist organization Hezbollah and in the assistance of Syria's
embattled president, Bashar Assad.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran and China will sign a $3 billion contract next
month to upgrade Iran's oil refining capacity, according to Iran's
Mehr News agency. Iran's deputy oil minister Abbas Kazemi said in
Tehran on Tuesday that the deal will focus on upgrading the Abadan oil
refinery, Mehr said. "Last week, China officially opened the
financing for the plan to fix and improve the quality of the Abadan
refinery," Mehr quoted Kazemi as saying. Iran's refineries are
in a state of disrepair after years of sanctions which prevented
access to parts and new technology. The deal is expected to be signed
when a delegation of Chinese oil officials visit Tehran next month,
Kazemi said, according to Mehr News.
Iran says it has signed a deal with Germany to
cooperate over production of 50 diesel locomotives which will be used
in the Iranian rail network. Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban
Development Abbas Akhoundi said the deal was signed during a visit to
Tehran by Germany's Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure,
Alexander Dobrindt. Akhoundi was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency
that the locomotives will be jointly produced by Germany's
engineering giant Siemens and Iran Power Projects Management Company
(MAPNA)... The remarks by Akhoundi and Dobrindt followed the signing
of a memorandum of understanding between Iran and Germany to promote
cooperation in various areas of the transportation industry.
Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company signed an MOU
with Fraport AG, Munich Airport, and Dornier Consulting International
GmbH in Tehran on Tuesday to boost airport and aviation ties with
Germany. According to IRNA, the MOU was penned between Chairman of
the Executive Board of Fraport AG Stefan Schulte, Business Director
of Dornier Company Michael Holzschneider, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Munich Airport Michael Kerkloh, and CEO of Iran
Airports and Air Navigation Company Rahmatollah Mah-Abadi.
SYRIA CONFLICT
Iran is looking to Syria peace talks next week as a
chance to build on its regional clout, experts say, as Tehran, Moscow
and Ankara all stake out claims for influence. The Syrian army's
victory in recapturing the rebel stronghold of east Aleppo last month
has thrust Tehran to the centre of the diplomatic game playing out
over the country's future. The win was achieved with crucial
assistance from Iranian military advisors and thousands of
"volunteer" fighters. President Hassan Rouhani said this
week that the co-sponsors of the peace talks opening in Astana on
Monday -- Iran, Russia and Turkey -- were the only powers with the
influence to turn the fragile ceasefire between the Syrian government
and rebels into a lasting settlement.
REGIONAL DESTABILIZATION
A Kuwaiti parliamentarian committee has protested
against Iran's "antagonistic and provocative" practices,
saying that they hampered any form of cooperation or attempt to
improve relations. The parliament's Foreign Relations Committee said
during a discussion with Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Sabah Al
Khalid Al Sabah of the latest regional and international developments
that Iran's hostile practices against Kuwait and Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) countries and that included smuggling in weapons and
explosives and espionage networks as well as constant harassment in
the Iranian media, threatened security. "Such a situation
hampers cooperation and the development of our relations since it
does not achieve the purpose of cooperation between neighbouring or
Islamic countries," Head of the committee, MP Ali Al Deqbasi,
said at a press conference following the meeting.
HUMAN RIGHTS
An Iranian bodybuilder has been arrested after
publishing selfie of her muscles on social media which were deemed to
be 'nude'. The woman, who is accused of breaking the Islamic
Republic's strict rules on nudity, has been locked up in prison
because she was unable to post bail of two million rials (£50),
according to the Mizanonline news agency. She has not been identified
but it is thought she may be Shirin Nobahari, one of two women who
took part in an international competition and were reported in
September to have been warned about selfies which they posted
afterwards. Ms Nobahari's Instagram account, which users the moniker
Shirin Muscleking, contains a number of photographs and videos of her
showing off her biceps and lifting weights.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The death last week of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one
of the Islamic Republic of Iran's founding fathers, represents not
just the loss of an elder statesman. It's a political blow to the
fortunes of reformists and moderates in Iran for three main reasons:
Rafsanjani's revolutionary street cred; his absence from the Assembly
of Experts -- the body that selects the next supreme leader; and his
promotion of republicanism within Iran. Rafsanjani's power stemmed
not from his resume -- Friday prayer imam, Iran-Iraq War commander,
parliament speaker, president -- but from his relationship with the
leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He
was one of the few members of Khomeini's inner circle still active on
the political scene in Tehran. In fact, Iran's current supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, owes his political career to
Rafsanjani. In 1978, when Khomeini announced the formation of an
Islamic Revolutionary Council from Paris, it was Rafsanjani who
suggested Khamenei join -- Khamenei was a mid-ranking cleric living
at the time in Mashhad. In 1989, when Khomeini died, it was
Rafsanjani yet again who invoked his special relationship as one of
Khomeini's key lieutenants to push for the elevation of Khamenei as
supreme leader, disclosing that Khomeini revealed his choice of
Khamenei on his deathbed. This was Rafsanjani's power in action --
the ability to speak authentically and authoritatively as a disciple
of Khomeini and in the process, serving as political kingmaker.
Western leaders have displayed astonishing
unwillingness to acknowledge the evidence of their own intelligence
agencies and militaries concerning Iranian interference in Yemen and
the region. During Gen. James Mattis' Senate hearings for his
appointment as defense secretary last week, it emerged the degree to
which Barack Obama's administration had closed its ears to Mattis'
weekly warnings about Iran's destabilizing role in Yemen, Bahrain,
Iraq and elsewhere during his tenure as America's top military
commander in the Middle East. Eventually Obama's team, preoccupied with
engaging Iran, had enough of being told what it did not want to hear,
and the general was replaced.
One year ago this week, the European Union, China,
France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the US and Iran began to implement
the joint comprehensive plan of action on Iran's nuclear programme.
This agreement was the result of brave choices, political leadership,
collective determination and hard work. A year on, we can clearly say
that the Iran deal is working and we need to maintain it. To those
critics who have raised concerns, both about the terms of the
agreement or about the very idea of having an agreement at all with
Iran, I say: take a close look at the facts. The agreement has
already paid off by addressing a highly contentious and longstanding
dispute in a peaceful manner. In its absence, today we might be
facing one more military conflict, in a region that is already far
too destabilised. The deal, one year after its implementation, is
delivering on its main purpose: ensuring the purely peaceful,
civilian nature of Iran's nuclear programme... The deal is also
working for Iran. Major companies are investing in the country: the
oil sector, the automotive industry, commercial aircraft, just to
give a few examples, are areas where significant contracts have been
concluded. The International Monetary Fund has forecast real GDP
growth in Iran to rebound to 6.6% in 2016-17.
Just before the one-year anniversary of Jason
Rezaian's freedom from an Iranian prison, Iran announced plans that
will sabotage its own economy to spite the West. Last week,
Al-Arabiya news reported that Iran's judiciary decided to
revoke the Iranian citizenship of anyone holding dual citizenship
with another country . The finality of this proposal is unclear due
to conflicting media reports. This could target men and women like
Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter, and Siamak Namazi, an American
businessman who is currently in a notorious Tehran prison. While the
action may satisfy the paranoid and power-hungry Revolutionary Guard
that is responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of dozens of dual
nationals - mostly American and British citizens - it would seriously
hamper Iran's ability to attract the foreign investment and engage
its economy needs. Dual nationals, many raised abroad, often have a
cultural and linguistic fluency with Iran that non-Iranians lack, no
matter their language training or cultural emersion. Moreover, since
the Islamic Revolution, Americans who also held Iranian passports
have travelled there more easily. Once in Iran, though, they have
often faced harassment and recently imprisonment, as Rezaian did.
Since the 1979 Revolution, dual nationals, some born abroad, have
regularly returned to visit family, study and engage in business as
natural conduits between cultures and economies.
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